Microsoft has launched new Solutions Partner designations. If you hold a legacy Silver or Gold competency that’s been renewed before October 4, 2022, you will earn the new Solution Partner designation and customer facing badging automatically without additional cost.
Solutions Partner designations identify broad technical capabilities across six key solution areas. Each is driven by a partner capability score which measures performance, skilling and customer success, using data already tracked in Partner Center.
Benefits
Microsoft relies on a virtual army of technology partners around the world to support its products and help customers thrive. These partners work with the company to provide support before, during and after the implementation of a solution. They also help customers navigate through any challenges that may arise.
These partners are also familiar with the latest Microsoft technologies and can provide them to their clients. This helps them to create solutions that are adapted to their clients’ specific needs and requirements.
Depending on the solution area, each Solutions Partner designation includes incremental benefits that can help you scale and meet customer demand. These benefits include go-to-market services, co-sell eligibility and skilling and sales enablement resources. In addition, you can access technical pre-sales support and unlimited technical support incidents. You can even buy additional support packages, which offer more robust tools and resources. These are called Partner Success Core Benefits and Partner Success Expanded Benefits, respectively.
Certifications
With Solutions Partner Designations, Microsoft is raising the bar to ensure that customers can easily identify and work with their most capable partners. These new designations assess capabilities across performance, skilling and customer success, giving businesses like yours more confidence that your selected IT provider can deliver projects to the highest standard.
To qualify for a Solutions Partner Designation, your partner capability score must meet the thresholds. These metrics are based on data that’s already recorded in Partner Center and include usage growth and deployments. Usage growth is measured by the amount of products or services associated with your organization, while deployments is based on the number of workloads or technologies deployed in your customer portfolio.
You can maintain your Solutions Partner Designation by meeting the requirements and paying the annual fee within the renewal window. The annual fee will align with the fees for legacy Silver and Gold competencies. To learn more, see the Solutions Partner Designation benefits guide.
Training
A Microsoft Solutions Partner is a company that offers training on Microsoft technologies to help clients use the latest tools and features of the software. These partners also offer support and resources that help businesses optimize their technology investments.
The new Solutions Partner Designation program sets a higher bar for partners to qualify and be selected by customers. To earn a Solution Partner Designation, a partner must achieve a high score in three categories: Performance, Skills and Customer Success. This makes it easier for customers to identify and select partners that can meet their specific technology needs.
Each Solution Partner Designation is mapped to a Microsoft solution area and replaces six legacy Gold or Silver competencies. To maintain a Solutions Partner Designation, a partner must renew the designation by meeting requirements for Performance, Skills and Customer Success. They must also pay the annual renewal fee to retain their Solutions Partner benefits.
Resources
Microsoft Solutions Partners have access to additional resources to support their business and help customers meet IT challenges. These resources include training, marketing programs, sales tools, and technical support. Solutions Partners can also help businesses optimize their IT infrastructure and drive growth.
Microsoft recently launched Solutions Partner Designations. These designations replace the former Silver and Gold competencies. Find out how you can accelerate your cloud business with these new credentials that validate your capabilities and expertise.
If you’re a solutions partner, you can track your progress toward attaining each Solutions Partner Designation through the Partner Center dashboard and the Solutions Partner Designation Status tool. Additionally, you can learn more about the benefits associated with each badge in the Solutions Partner Designation Benefits Guide. Badges and benefits are attained at the partner global account (PGA) level, but can be distributed to the partner location accounts (PLA) that align with the solution area where you’re qualified.